Time has come for me to move on from Unilever. Will be joining AstraZeneca on the 2nd September.
On the negative side, I am leaving Unilever because of rate cuts and a potential novation to a third party outsourcing organisation later in the year. On the positive side, my project is 90% complete and the programme will not miss me, maybe a good time to move on.
Will miss a lot of great people. Strange how you move in and out of peoples lives. Thrown together then forced apart. Hopefully some of the relationships will survive in some little way.
So I am back to AstraZeneca. Looking forward to working with some old and some new colleagues along with Trees.
Great run last night. The Pondersa Fell Race, 4 miles, 900 feet of mist, bogs and sheep tracks.
The plan was to take it easy running round with one of my work colleagues. Turns out Julia is not so much a beginner as was first thought. Nice to get out and about again and be with the Fell Running community. They are all so positive and friendly. A great bunch.
Ok, woke up in a different frame of mind today. Change is in the air.
I was up and at em at 6.30 am. Rather than go to the gym and over do it, I stayed at home and started my stretching routine. Need to plan long term rather than short term efforts that see me injured. Going to stretch three times and day for a few days before starting any light exercise and training.
Met Andy yesterday, looks like the longest day in June next year is our target date for the Jos Naylor Challenge. He will be running again in 4 to 6 weeks after his knee op. That gives me enough time to get a good stretching base in place.
Going to reintroduce 5 fruit a day and get the eating back on plan.
Probably go for a long mountain walk with Trees this weekend if the stretching goes well.
Now I need to get the cake and chocolate eating under control. Easier said than done.
Looks like my blog has fallen from grace. With the acquisition of my iPhone I find myself using Facebook more and more. It is so much easier to do a quick update and load a photo. The 20six blog is so cumbersome and backwards in comparison. Getting a photo on to my blog is a major activity in comparison to Facebook.
So what have I been up to? Not been training for the last few weeks, I have had a sore heel and I am kind of taking a break as I have no major events this year. Dan has left the country, Stephen is just not bothering with Mountain Marathons and Andy has a major operation needed to get him back on the Jos Naylor trail. Had a great walk with Ian over Crinkle Crags and we plan another major outing in September. Looks like I am going to start training again this week with a run over Moel Arthur on Wednesday with Mark and Julia from work. I some sense of pride seeing new people giving the fells a try.
Work has been up and down. Monies have dropped and a planned reorganisation did not happen. Having said that I like the team, location and the programme. Nice to be a leader again. Think Leadership is definitely the thing that gets me out of bed in the morning.
Kwai is flying along with Leadership Café. He did a presentation in Porto last week, has links with Asian Sound Radio and is about to release his new Leadership website. He has a target to introduce 20 million people to leadership. I think he will achieve it. I have been speaking to Asian Sounds and 3Gamma, never know where these discussion lead to.
Trees has hardly eaten for seven days. She just cannot keep food down. Not sure how she manages to get through the day. I guess the weight loss will be welcome, although I don’t think it is needed.
Lauren is with us this week. Been lovely to spend time with her. Lauren has been running for up to 30 minutes and is slimming up quite nicely. Danielle is joining us Thursday in preparation for the BBQ this weekend. The theme is Hollywood.
We are off to Canada at Christmas to see Michelle and the family in Toronto. So exciting. The flights were booked last night. We hope to see Terry and Elaine and have a few days in Niagara on New Years eve. They have a festival of light and Fireworks along with all the other attractions there. Cannot wait.
Mum continues to be unwell, not sure if she will make it across for the BBQ.
Onwards and upwards.
Great weekend. Not only did we get time with Carol and the family, we also went to see the last Thunder gig at the Hammersmith Apollo.
I little of an emotional evening for Trees, this was the final gig after 20 years. Trees has followed them since she was 20 and had their first gig in Southend. Trees was there for the first and the last. We have the T-Shirts to prove it. Carol and Charlie came along for what turned out to be a great gig. Trees and I bopped for the whole evening. Great to let our hair down. Being a smaller venue it was a fantastic atmosphere.
Just wish there was more to come but all good things come to an end and we have to move on. Happiness and sadness rolled in to one.
Getting a little behind with my blogging.
More and more I am finding that I am using Facebook and now Twitter to keep a diary of events. It is so much easier than logging on to my very cumbersome blog. I have also purchased the latest iPhone. This means it is even easier to Twitter and Facebook. I take a picture, add a comment and in an instance I have recorded the moment.
Bye the way, I love my new iPhone. Crap as a phone as the signal is not great but everything else is the bees knees. Hundreds of free and fantastic applications. I am addicted.
Managed a couple of runs over the last week. Mark Johnson is now at the same company so we have managed a couple of lunch time runs. Did not run over the weekend as we were down south with a packed weekend of activities. Heel is a little sore again but I have not been stretching as much as I would like. Andy has knee cartilage problems so the Josh Naylor is off. I now habe no major events on for this year. That is 2 years running. Think I am going to have to do a Josh Naylor myself! Phil Winskill managed a Bob Graham Round on Sunday without any training. Superstar.
On Friday evening we went over to Leeds for Deb’s 50th surprise party. Tears all round. We then travelled through the night to be in Romford for Charlie’s 13th Birthday surprise party. Call the medic, James strained his knee on the trampoline. Sunday saw us off to Lakeside Shopping centre. Having got a new Laptop, Charlie also acquired a new iPod Touch and a few accessories. What a birthday weekend for him.
Sunday evening was back to Carol’s for Sunday dinner then the drive home lat Sunday. Phew, time for bed.
Another great weekend.
Trees had a night out in Chester with friends on Friday evening. I took the opportunity to categorise and rank 8,000 Itunes. A marathon, but worth it. I also scanned in 30 important documents in to a new tool, Evernote. Fantastic bit of software.
Saturday day, Trees was out and about in Chester with Nick, she got some cute shoes. I nipped in to Wrexham with Karl for a hair cut and general shopping.
Saturday evening saw us doing an impression of a couple of veggies in front of the TV. Trees had a long week and needed the rest followed by 11 hours in bed Saturday night. Bless her.
Sunday morning I finally decided to buy the new iPhone. Been thinking about it for months and decided to go for it. I love my new toy!
Sunday lunctime, we were off with Mum Pat to the Lake District. The girls did an hours walk then off to Ambleside. I ran up Great Langdale valley then a loop up and over Rossett Pike. 3 hours of pain and fun. Loved it. Kind of getting used to my adventures on my own. Great to have Trees and Pat with me. I get my adventure, Pat and Trees get an adventure. We all win.